The UK Millennium Cohort Study:

1. The UK Millennium Cohort Study: The Circumstances of Early Motherhood Denise D. Hawkes 19th December 2007

2. Presentation based on: • Denise Hawkes (2008) “The UK Millennium Cohort Study: the circumstances of early motherhood”, in R. Edwards (ed.) Researching Families and Communities: Social and Generational Change, Abingdon: Routledge. (forthcoming)

3. Chapter content • a description of the Millennium Cohort Study • to show how birth cohort studies can be used as a methodology to understand family, community and social change. • Using data from the first two sweeps of the Millennium Cohort Study • to consider the family background and circumstances of the children’s mothers and their relationship to the age at which they had their first birth of child

4. Focus of today’s presentation • a description of the Millennium Cohort Study • to show how birth cohort studies can be used as a methodology to understand family, community and social change. • Using data from the first two sweeps of the Millennium Cohort Study • to consider the family background and circumstances of the children’s mothers and their relationship to the age at which they had their first birth of child • Links to other papers undertaken for this UPTAP award

5. Research Question • Topic of Interest: Age at which the cohort child’s mother had her first child and how far can this be predicted by: • woman’s family of origin • women’s own childhood • state of the labour market around the time of conception • Why of interest: • Joshi, Heather and Denise Hawkes (2005) “Early and Late Entry to Motherhood in Wales: Evidence of Socio-economic Inequalities in the First Survey of the UK Millennium Cohort” Welsh Assembly Government Report, Wales • Hawkes, Denise, Heather Joshi and Kelly Ward (2004) “Unequal Entry to Motherhood and Unequal Starts in Life: Evidence from the First Survey of the UK Millennium Cohort” November 2004 CLS Cohort Studies Working Paper No. 6

6. Hypothesis • Association between age at which the cohort child’s mother had her first child and • woman’s family of origin & women’s own childhood • more advantaged will have more reason to delay motherhood • state of the labour market around the time of conception • shortage of jobs could makes early motherhood either more attractive as fewer alternatives or less attractive financially

7. Model agemoth = α + β antecendent + γ labourmarket + ε • where: • agemoth is a continuous variable of the age at first birth, or motherhood, •  is the constant • antecedent are a set of variables which are determined before the birth of the child • labourmarket are those variables which consider the health of the economy, national or local in the year before their first birth • is the residual.

8. Variables • antecedent • observed at sweep one: mother’s ethnic group, whether her parents separated or divorced before the birth of the mother’s first child, whether she had experienced any time in care as a child and whether or not the mother left school at the compulsory school leaving age • retrospective data from sweep two: whether the mother was born in the UK, if her parents were born in the UK and whether her parents were employed when she was 14 years old. • labourmarket • ward non participation (or economic inactivity), regional and national unemployment rates (lagged one year).

9. Data - Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) • A sample of 18,818 children born in the UK between September 2000 and January 2002. • The initial survey was undertaken when the children were nine months old. Two follow-up surveys have been undertaken, when the children were three and five years old (See Hansen 2006) • The MCS sample consists of all children who were living in a selected electoral ward at the age of nine months. The design over-samples from the areas with a high proportion of child poverty, high proportion of ethnic minority inhabitants and the Celtic countries. (See Plewis et al 2004)

10. Data – ONS Unemployment • The cluster design of the survey enables data to be added from the census and other sources at the electoral ward level • The data on the national, regional unemployment rates and ward level non participation rates were obtained from the Office for National Statistics • These are based on estimates using the Labour Force Survey

11. Descriptive Statistics • The average age at first birth • for all the mothers 25.7 • for the subset of mothers whose cohort child was the first born, 27.0, • The average unemployment rate • for the whole sample was 7.2 per cent • before the cohort children were born was 5.8 per cent.

12. Results: antecedent MCS1 variables • Those who entered motherhood earlier are more likely to have: • experienced family disruption on their own childhood • having experienced a family break-up lowers the average age at first motherhood by nearly two years • left school early • having stayed on at school raises the average age at first motherhood by nearly three years • belong to an ethnic minority group • the age at first motherhood for a Bangladeshi is around five years younger than for white mothers, ceteris paribas

13. Results: antecedent MCS2 variables • Those who entered motherhood earlier are more likely to have: • been born in the UK to parents born in the UK. • being British of British parents lowers the average age at first motherhood by nearly three years in total. • Note: interaction with ethnicity • Had an unemployed father at age 14 • Having a father was employed at age 14 increases the average age at first motherhood two and a half years

14. Results: labourmarket MCS2 variables 1 • Lagged National Unemployment Rates • ALL MOTHERS

15. Results: labourmarket MCS2 variables 2 • Regional Unemployment Rates • First Time Mothers only • Insignificant and smaller effect • Area effects are important • living in areas of high child poverty or high proportions of ethnic minorities, are associated with younger mothers. • living in Wales and Northern Ireland are associated with younger mothers relative to England. • regional unemployment is strongly outweighed by the area characteristics which are probably a better measure of the local labour market.

16. Results: labourmarket MCS2 variables 3

17. Ward level conclusions • 1% increase in non participation rates associated with earlier motherhood by 0.4% • Children of younger mothers more likely to be born in wards with higher non participation rates • Local employment prospects appear to encourage : • delayed motherhood when they are good • earlier child bearing where they are bad • Those born to younger parents are more likely to be exposed to the disadvantages of their mother’s background as well as those of living in a more disadvantaged area

18. Conclusions • MCS children born to mothers in their teens and early twenties when they had their first child: • tend to have mothers who experienced tougher childhoods themselves • More likely to be raised in disadvantaged area • Hawkes et al (2004) find these antecedent disadvantages are compounded by poorer circumstances in which the cohort child find themselves at sweep one • Hawkes and Joshi (2007) looking at the impact of these antecedent factors, early life experiences and parenting on child cognitive and behavioural outcomes at age three.

19. Timing of motherhood: NCDS and BCS70 • Andrew Jenkins, Heather Joshi and Mark Killingsworth • Comparing first two births in NCDS and BCS70 • Main findings for education are that • it behaves as we would expect for first birth (i.e. –ve) • may be having a positive influence on second birth for NCDS.  • For both cohorts unemployment has: • negative association with first birth in both cohorts • positive for 2nd birth in both cohorts • however most of the coefficients, except for BCS first birth, are non-significant.

20. Moving on to maternal employment: • Danielle Crosby and Denise Hawkes (2007) “Cross-National Research Using Contemporary Birth Cohort Studies: A Look at Early Maternal Employment in the United Kingdom and United States.” International Journal of Social Research Methodology, Volume 10, Issue 5, December 2007, pages 379 – 404

21. Lastly: Child Outcomes (1). • Danielle Crosby and Denise Hawkes • “Child Outcomes and Early Maternal Employment: Evidence for the UK and the US” • in consideration for Child Development special edition Effects of Early Experience on Cognitive and/or Socio-Emotional Development

22. Child Outcomes (2). • Kirstine Hansen and Denise Hawkes • “Early Childcare and Child Development” • in submission at Social Policy

23. Child Outcomes (3). • Denise Hawkes, Heather Joshi and Kelly Ward • “Unequal Entry to Motherhood and Unequal Child Development: Evidence from the First Three Surveys of the UK Millennium Cohort” • (in preparation)

24. Findings from project so far • Timing of Motherhood: • Associated with personal characteristics (past and present), area characteristics and labour market • Maternal Employment: • Associated with mostly maternal characteristics – same characteristics in UK and US but different directions • Child Outcomes: • Associated with maternal characteristics, not employment status • Associated with child care type • Hoping to show a link to parenting styles

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